More Than Half of Americans Have Had Sex in a Car, Study Shows

59.77%, to be exact.

The experience of having sex for the first time is not the same for everyone. Some people are ready for it at certain ages when others aren't, and that's totally OK. But there's no question about it — pop culture depictions of people having sex for the first time can be very interesting to say the least — and they may not always paint the most realistic view of sex. One of the biggest misconceptions perpetuated in movies and on TV, for example, is that it everyone is having sex. Of course, this is a huge lie.

Having sex for the first time is different for everyone, but because of that, it's natural to be curious about how and where other people have that experience. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unrealistic and just plain weird storylines we've seen over the years. Not only that, but there seems to be a lack of emphasis on the most important part about deciding to have sex: that both you and your partner are comfortable and excited about the situation. Instead, we focus on factors like location.

Enter: A small new study in The Journal of Sex Research, which examined where Americans are having sex, including where they're having sex for the first time. Researchers found that the majority of Americans have had sex in a car — 59.77%, to be exact — and as many as 8.37% had sex for the first time in one, as Refinery29notes.

The study was conducted at the University of South Dakota and included 195 men and 511 women who were questioned simply about cars and sex. The researchers also found that fewer than half of the women surveyed said they had an orgasm the last time they had sex in a car, and that nearly half said the sex didn't last longer than 15 minutes.

The choice of having sex is yours and yours alone, and no one should ever make you feel pressured to have sex in a room, in a car, or anywhere else — but if you do decide to have sex for the first time in a car, at least now we know that might be how it happens for about 1 in 12 people.